


Whispers from the Dark

by SnowYuri



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-11 16:22:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15319416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowYuri/pseuds/SnowYuri





	1. Chapter I

Dorn watched her arrive on the island, the freighter touching down just on the edge of the southernmost cliff. As soon as the ship landed he raced off up the cliffside to alert his master. Dorn found him meditating on the small altar-like cliffside that overlooked the water with a view of the horizon. "Master, a ship has just arrived."

The master remained silent so long that Dorn began to think he had not heard him. "Go to your quarters, Dorn," the master said, his eyes lingering on the horizon. "If I haven't returned in fifteen minutes, burn down the tree and leave."

"R2, stay here with Chewie. Keep the ship idling just in case…" Rey didn't know why she wanted the ship ready to go but the thought of it comforted her. "Just in case," she said and smiled faintly at Chewie, hoping that was enough to let him know that she knew what she was doing. Chewie grunted in understanding. "I'll be back," she said and walked over to the cliffside to begin climbing it.

Ten minutes she'd been climbing the steps and already her legs were begging for rest. Sweat was beginning to drip down her face and arms, her clothes stuck to her body and when she looked up from the stone steps she expected to see the sand wastelands of Jakku. Instead she saw the vast, endless ocean stretching out toward the horizon and she kept climbing.

When she made it to the top, where the stone turned into a platform of lush green grass, she was so tired that she almost didn't notice the figure standing at the edge of the cliff. She couldn't see their face, or any part of them for that matter thanks to the robes. But she didn't need to see their face to know who it was. "Luke Skywalker," Rey said, the words leaving her mouth with a certainness that made herself uneasy.

The figure at the edge of the cliff slowly turned to Rey, its hands raising to lower their hood.

Rey didn't know what to expect. A glint of sunlight caused her to briefly squint her eyes. She saw the robotic hand the sunlight had reflected off of and for a second thought Luke was entirely robotic. But then she saw the salt and pepper beard on the rough and wrinkled face of the man who brought down the Empire.

"Who are you?" Luke said but his voice serious.

"My name's Rey. You-"

"Rey what?"

She thought about whether or not she should lie, to give him a fake name. But then she shook her head, "Just Rey."

"Okay, Just Rey. Why are you here?"

"Your sister Leia sent me. She needs your help."

The sound of his sister's name alone made Luke want to go down to whatever ship Rey arrived on and go to her now. But he knew he couldn't, not now. Maybe not ever.

"I can't help her." Luke moved past Rey towards the cliff steps.

Rey turned and watched him go, stunned by his response. She was sure that he would agree to help without a moment's hesitation.

"Wait!" she called after him.

"No," Luke said, starting down the steps.

Rey followed after him, trying to catch up to him as they both descended the steps. "Leia needs you. The Resistance needs you. Without you the First Order will control the last remaining free systems within months. Maybe even weeks. The galaxy needs you."

About thirty steps down the cliff Luke stopped and pressed both of his hands against the cliffside. A small portion of the rockface, about five feet high and four feet across, pushed inward revealing an opening to a tunnel. Luke went through without another word. As soon as he was out of sight the rock began to shift back into its original spot. Rey raced down the steps to slide inside before it closed but it was too late. Just before she reached the proper step, the rock settled. She pushed against the cliff just as she'd seen Luke do before but it didn't budge. She closed her eyes and pictured the door opening in her mind but the stone remained still and locked.

"We need you!" she yelled at the wall.

No one responded.

Then she said seemingly to herself, her voice meek: "I need you."

It was raining now and harder every second. Grey clouds rolled in from the south and settled above the island. Rey sat in the pilot seat of the Falcon with her legs kicked up onto the console, watching the rain slide down the windshield. Slumped in the seat beside her, Chewie snored with his mouth hung open. Outside the cockpit window she could see the ocean waves crash against the rocky shore below. Off to the left was a small dirt landing that wrapped around the side of another cliff.

Rey stared out of the water, contemplating what she should do next. She considered powering up the Falcon and heading back to D'qar. But then they'd be in the same position as before she left. Already she imagined a second encounter with Luke, most of them going as unsuccessful as the first. In one possibility, the one she liked the most, she'd fall asleep and wake to the sound of knocking on the Falcon's main door. She'd open the door to find Luke telling her that he would help. That-

A knock came from the back of the ship. It startled Rey but Chewie snored on. She sat ip in her seat, her mind torn from her fantasies, wondering if the knock she'd just heard was real. The knock came again and she got up from her chair, unholstering her blaster. She approached the main ship door and said, "Who's there?" She was mostly sure that she wasn't in any danger but her long stretch of fantasy and the current weather sent a surreal, unsettling atmosphere.

"A friend," the person on the other side of the door said.

Rey pushed a button beside the door and the metal portal slid open. On the other side was a robed person, their face darkened by their hood. In either hand they carried two bowls, steam rising from both of them.

"Food. Should keep you satisfied until you leave in the morning. You can't leave now, not with the weather the way it is. Trying to get through the atmosphere now…" The person shook their head.

Rey took the two bowls from the person. As soon as she did, the stranger walked down the ramp of the Falcon and back into the rain.

"Wait," Rey called after. She looked around for somewhere to set the bowls down but didn't want to lose the mystery person to another series of hidden caves so she set the the bowls onto the floor and chased after them.

Immediately the rain drenched her. At first she thought she'd already lost the stranger to the weather, the darkness of the clouds and the intensity of the rain made seeing more than a few feet ahead difficult. But then she made out the muddy, ghost like shape moving through the downpour and she started running. She called out for them to wait again but her voice was drowned out by the rain. She ran after them, nearly slipping from the muddy surface several times. She saw them round the corner of a cliffside and disappear. She thought surely they'd be gone by the time she too rounds the corner.

She flinched, startled when she came around the cliffside and nearly ran into the person. They faced her. Rey could see their gray eyes beneath the hood, their young complexion. "Leave here first thing the morning. The master won't help you. You're wasting your time. I'm sorry." The stranger walked away.

"Why? Why won't he help me?" Rey said, her voice raised to be heard over the rain.

"Because the Galaxy has enough problems without adding you to the mix."

Rey stood alone in the rain, watched the stranger disappear into the gray. A grunt came from behind her. When she turned she saw Chewie standing there.

"I'm alright," Rey said. "I'm…" she looked in the direction the stranger had took to leave. "I'm alright."

The next morning Rey climbed the steps to where she first met Luke. At the top of the steps she went straight across the flat grassland and back onto a rockier terrain. For half an hour she traversed the hard and uneven land of the island, climbing rock walls and jumping from ledge to ledge. While she could appreciate the island's beauty, the sight of grey rock and the occasional patch of grass was beginning to annoy her. Another fifteen minutes passed and still she saw no sign of where Luke or the stranger might be.

She sat on a rock and dabbed her face with a cloth. She pulled out a small loaf of portion bread and ate it while looking out over the terrain. While she ate she thought of Finn, wondering if he'd woken up yet. She wondered when she'd see him again and that when she did she'd hug him like she'd never hugged anyone in her life because he was family. She wondered if he thought of her as family too.

Before she knew it she reached down for another bite of bread and found that there were only crumbs left. She wiped her hands off, shouldered her bag, and stood on top of the rock.

When her eyes fell on the tree she didn't react immediately. It took her a few moments to recognize that it in fact was a tree and not a tree shaped jut of stone.

Not wasting any time she quickly climbed off the rock and started to carefully navigate her way through the small valley of white rock that separated her from the grassland where the tree stood. A small stone path wound its way through the grass up to an archway in the trunk of the tree.

A few minutes later she dropped down from a small cliff and landed in the grass. The tree loomed over her, its shadow stretching west over a hillside.

_This is it_ , she thought.  _This is where he lives._

She started up the narrow stone path, each step filling her with a mix of nervousness and excitement. When she reached archway she saw how dark it was inside. "Hello?" she called into the tree. She took her first step inside and immediately the sounds of the world seemed to fade. The birds stopped chirping and calling, the waves of the ocean seemed so far away. She stood in a narrow hallway no more than four feet across and six feet in height.

Her eyes began to adjust to the darkness inside and the interior came into view. She reached the end of the hallway and it opened up into a small circular room. Luke wasn't here, neither was the stranger she'd met yesterday. Instead she found a small shelf bearing eight books.

Rey looked around the room for some kind of door or entryway that led down into a tunnel system where surely Luke was hiding. When she couldn't find any such door she removed one of the books from the shelf. It was old and leatherbound. It looked more like a journal than a proper book. She opened it to the first page. Instead of words there was a drawing of a sword with a start for a hilt. The second page had words but none of them in a language which Rey understood. She set the book back and removed another. On the first page was the same symbol as the first book. On the second page were words and these she could read. THE JEDI PATH, it read. Excited, she flipped to the next page which detailed the Jedi Code. Her eyes widened and she set down her pack, sat down on the floor and began to read.

Two hours later her mind was filled with parts of Jedi history and wisdom, each part fighting for place in her mind to be remembered. She read of the Jedi's beginnings on the very island that she stood on. She read of ancient Jedi methods of training and ways of maintaining an appropriate temperament.

She removed another book the shelf and flipped it open to its title page. This one read: THE FORCE. Her heart rate quickened and she began to flip through the pages. Her eyes landed on the words: Novice Force Techniques. She opened to the page which bore those words and she began to read. The technique listed was a meditation technique used to focus one's connection to the force. She set the book open on the floor in front of her and crossed her legs. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and searched for that sensation she first felt on Starkiller Base.

Perhaps it was the excitement she felt in discovering the books that distracted her but it took her sometime to properly focus. But when she did her mind seemed to reach out and discover an entirely new place inside her.

Darkness filled her mind and she stood alone in the void. The voices of her friends seemed to call out to her but they were distant and their words incoherent. But in those voices was a pull, something tugging her further into the void. She latched onto it and it guided her through the emptiness. She felt a breeze graze her cheek. She could hear it too, this force was guiding her somewhere. As she went the wind began to pick up and soon it was much stronger than before. She felt her hair whipping against her face. The voices were gone, drowned out by the gusts of wind. A crack of thunder startled her and the winds were turning violent. It became hard to move forward, the force of the wind pushing her back, she was not welcome here. She pressed forward, overwhelming the strength of the wind. In response its strength only grew. Overhead thunder boomed and lightning slashed across the black but their light revealed nothing. Their strength was too strong now. Gale force winds held her back from advancing any further.

Then lightning struck only a few feet ahead of her. This one split the void open. A small jagged crack allowed a deep red to seep into the blackness of the void. Another bolt of lightning struck, this one closer than the first. Rey stepped back as the crack in the void widened and stretched toward her. More of the deep red poured into the black. Lightning struck all around in rapid succession like the firing of laser cannons. The void was breached, fissures forming and joining together to create rifts. The red filled the void, overwhelming the black. Rey screamed then. A bolt of lightning struck where she stood and the fissures and rifts were repaired in an instant leaving nothing but an endless, unforgiving black.

Luke sent Dorn to gather fish for the night's supper. He took the sidepath that cut through two hills and bended around a cliffside and then lead straight down to the coastline. About halfway down the path another less obvious dirt path branched off to the left and led up to the Tree. Dorn had only taken that path several times since arriving on the island and he never went on that path with the intention of reading the books that rest inside. In his early days he was constantly tempted to go up to the Tree and learn what the books had to teach but the Master strictly forbade him from such a task.

Eventually the temptation lessened and now he often forgets that the books and the Tree are even there.

He walked down the path, fishing pole and bucket in hand, humming to himself. He froze when he heard the scream. A wave of heat washed over him and he looked toward the Tree. "No," he whispered to himself. He dropped the pole and bucket and raced up the dirt path toward the tree. He reached the grassland but didn't search for her there. No, he knew she hadn't fallen into a ravine or broken a limb while climbing a rock face. He knew exactly where she was.

His eyes had no time to adjust when he ran through the archway but he didn't need them to when he saw her. His eyes widened and he started to back up. He tripped over her bag and fell to the floor but this didn't stop him from moving. He crawled backwards, never taking his eyes off of her. When he finally managed to tear his eyes from her, he bolted out of the Tree and down the path which he came, calling for his master the whole way back.


	2. The Way it Used to Be.

She was still unconscious when they returned to her in the Tree.  
“She was like this when I found her. I was going down to the coastline when I heard her.”  
Luke circled around her. “Did you touch her?”  
“No,” Dorn said.  
“How close did you get to her?”  
The seriousness in Luke’s voice made Dorn more nervous than the sound Rey’s scream had. “As close as you are now.”  
“Go get some water.”  
Dorn hurried out of the tree leaving Luke to tend to her alone.  
She was still breathing which was one good sign. Luke looked down at the open book on the floor and sighed. The technique she had attempted, despite it being listed under Novice Techniques, required a tremendous amount of effort when being channeled by a single person. Luke figured she’d skipped over the part that detailed the technique was meant for several channelers. The consequences were obvious.  
Luke had read about the Force and its potential to warp the physical form. Its most notable occurrence affecting Sivin Lashant, a Jedi Grand Master from centuries ago. While attempting to undertake a Force technique known as Condemning, Lashant’s body was twisted and misshapen. While exceptionally strong with the Force, Lashant could no longer walk or fight as he once had.  
Contrary to this, a student of Lashant called Hin, trained hard under his master but was ultimately deemed to physically frail to advance past the rank of Padawan. This was until the young Hin attempted to prove himself by performing the same technique that crippled his master. But instead of deforming the Padawan, the Force strengthened him past the body’s physical limit. He advanced to the rank of Knight soon after, easily overpowering all of his colleagues he was classed with.  
Luke knew of these cases but none of them so extreme as Rey’s.  
He knelt beside her head and cupped her right cheek, turning her head toward him. “Rey,” he said softly. Her eyelids fluttered but she didn’t wake. “Rey.” Her eyelids quivered again and this time they opened.  
She looked up at Luke, tried to sit up.  
“Don’t move,” Luke said. “You’ve put your body under so much stress, even sitting up might kill you.”  
With no protest she sunk back down to the floor, her eyes barely keeping open.  
Luke heard Dorn as he ran up the path toward the Tree. He approached Luke from behind and handed him the bowl. He gently lifted Rey’s head off the ground, put the bowl to her lips, and tilted it slightly. Though her eyes were closed, she drank the water slowly.  
When she finished Luke handed the bowl back to Dorn and softly spoke to Rey. “Can you stand?” Rey nodded then slowly began to sit up. She grimaced as she did, every muscle in her body as sore as if she’d just spent three days out in the sun pulling parts from broken AT-ATs. Her head hurt too, as if someone had split it open with a club. She brought her knees in toward her chest and put her hands flat on the ground as she began to push herself up.  
“Slowly now. Slowly. If you don’t feel like you can, just sit right back down.” Luke stood with her, not quite ready to catch her if she fell but rather to slow her fall. Thankfully, though, she stood up just fine.  
When she was up straight, she opened her eyes and expected to see the disappointed faces of the two men who’d told her to leave. Instead her eyes met the wall above the arched entrance. Confused, she looked down and saw the Jedi Master and his assistant standing below her, both of them nearly less than half her height.

“You should be dead,” Dorn said.  
Opposite him sat Rey clothed in a large cloth wrapped around her body. She tightly held a cup of hot water in her hands.  
Luke came in through the entrance of the small hut carrying three bowls of food. “And yet, she isn’t,” he said. He handed Rey a bowl which she accepted and gave the other to Dorn before taking a seat for himself beside his assistant.  
Rey said nothing, only looked into her bowl. She hadn’t felt much of anything for the past few hours, much less an appetite.  
“You’re lucky,” Luke said. “Most of the time that kind of stress turns Force user’s minds to mush, twists their bones like rubber. Other times, rare times, it enhances them. Allows their minds to see things only few have seen before. Lets them fight for hours on end without a single sign of tiring.” He looked up from his bowl and at Rey. “But to you. Well, I’m not exactly sure how to label what it’s done to you.”  
She didn’t feel bigger, everything else just looked smaller. The bowl in her hand, identical to the ones she held yesterday, now fit easily in one hand.  
“I’m sorry,” she said.  
Luke shook his head. “I think you’ve already paid for what you did and then some.”  
They all sat in silence then, Rey staring at the bowl in her hand, Dorn glaring at Rey, and Luke eating his food as if nothing were wrong. “Why do you want my help?” Luke finally asked, but didn’t look up from his food.  
Rey perked up then. “So that you can help the Resistance defeat the First Order.”  
Luke slurped from his bowl, “Why?”  
Rey didn’t know what to say next. Had he not heard of the First Order? “Because it’s only a matter of time before they control the entire Galaxy. Months, maybe even weeks.”  
Luke finished eating, wiped his mouth with a cloth, and set his bowl down beside him. “Do you know how big the Galaxy is?” he asked Rey.  
Rey didn’t know where he was going with this. “No.”  
“It’s huge, massive. Some say it’s infinite, that it goes on forever and ever. Do you have any idea how many people it would take to conquer, not to mention hold, something that is infinite?” They stared at each other. “It’s impossible. Wouldn’t be done. Couldn’t be done. The First Order might control some of it, maybe even very important parts of it. But they’ll never control all of it.” He took his bowl and cloth and stood up. “You’d need a hundred First Orders to even begin. And even then, opposition always comes around.” He left.  
Dorn, much like Rey, hadn’t even touched his food. “Leave,” Dorn said and left the same way Luke had, leaving Rey alone.

That night Rey fashioned clothes out of the rags and cloth she found on the floor of her hut. When that was done she rested on the floor, using her bag to support her head. She removed the small dark grey pod from her bag and stared at it in the darkness. A small green light blinked in slow succession. The light comforted her because she knew just on the other end of that light was Finn, was the Resistance, was home. She clutched it in her hand and turned onto her side to sleep which never came to her.

After leaving Rey’s hut, Luke went to the cliffside where he’d first met her the day before. He stood in the grass and watched the ocean send small waves crashing into the rocks below. He thought of Leia then, thought of the last time he’d seen her on Hosnian so many years ago.  
_This is Ben._  
A small boy with dark hair peered around his mother.  
_It’s okay. This is your uncle, Luke._  
At the sight of him Luke could feel it, the force. The potential.  
_He’s going to teach you to be like him one day._

His memories dissipated as his eyes fell on the Falcon. Instantly his mind was filled with other memories, old ones.  
_...hokey religions and ancient weapons…_  
 _...stretch out with your feelings…_  
He moved down the steps and found Chewbacca resting on the ground outside the ship. Luke suspected the Wookie had fallen asleep not long after eating. He entered the ship and found it just as he remembered it. He went down into the rear gunner’s seat and put his hands on the controls. He spent a few minutes there thinking before he climbed back up to the main part of the ship. He made his way to the common area and sat down in the very spot where all those years ago Ben Kenobi taught him the basics of using a lightsaber and the force in conjunction. He could still hear the blasts from the seeker droid as it floated through the air, ready to fire its most unpredictable shots.  
Then something moved near the corner of his eye and Luke looked up to find R2-D2 rolling from out of the shadows. “R2!” Luke exclaimed. “How are you, buddy?”  
The droid responded with a series of beeps.  
“I’ve missed you too,” Luke said.  
R2 wobbled on his legs, beeping and squealing at Luke.  
“I can’t. I won’t. This Resistance-First Order thing,” Luke shook his head, “it’s just another phase. Going out there again would only make things worse.” He leaned back and rested his head against the wall.  
A light blue glow appeared in the middle of the room.  
“General Kenobi,” a voice said.  
Luke perked up and saw a hologram of his sister at the center of the room. “Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars…” Luke stared at the hologram, hearing his sister’s voice but not listening to her words. “This is our most desperate hour. Help me Obi-wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.”  
The hologram faded and the room returned to its darkness.  
Luke sat still, staring at the spot where the hologram had just faded from.  
Your sister Leia sent me. She needs your help.

Morning came sooner than she expected. Though she had not slept, her mind had wandered deep into her thoughts. The sound of movement coming from just outside her dwelling roused her. She got up and squeezed through the hut door expecting to find Luke outside. What she found instead were short, grey skinned creatures with two skinny legs like a bird’s. They were clothed in simple white robes. They looked up at Rey with wide eyes and looked as if they were ready to run away at a moments notice.  
“Hi,” Rey said with the friendliest smile she could muster but couldn’t help but feel awkward about the situation. The creatures stared up at her for a moment longer before returning to their duties of cleaning the huts and dwellings.  
Luke came up the hillside and greeted the creatures. They greeted him back with hands raised and bright faces. Some of them even hugged him. When they returned to work Luke and Rey stood on opposite ends of the stone platform, circled by huts.  
“You want me to train you?” Luke asked.  
An excitement welled up in Rey and she wanted to celebrate at the very possibility of being trained. Instead she kept her calm, “That’s what I came all this way to do.”  
“I’ll train you. But not for you, or for the Resistance, or to keep the Jedi alive. Meet me down by the coast in an hour. Bring my father’s weapon with you.”  
Rey watched him turn and start back the way he came. “What changed?” she called after him.  
“Nothing,” he said, still walking away. “Everything’s just the way it used to be.”


End file.
